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Neuroblastoma is the most recurring cancer in childhood and adolescence. The SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cell line is generally adopted for elaborating new therapeutical approaches and/or elaborating strategies for the prevention of central nervous system disturbances. In fact, it represents a valid model system for investigating in vitro the effects on the brain of X-ray exposure using vibrational spectroscopies that can detect early radiation-induced molecular alterations of potential clinical usefulness. In recent years, we dedicated significant efforts in the use of Fourier-transform and Raman microspectroscopy techniques for characterizing such radiation-induced effects on SH-SY5Y cells by examining the contributions from different cell components (DNA, proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates) to the vibrational spectra. In this review, we aim at revising and comparing the main results of our studies to provide a wide outlook of the latest outcomes and a framework for future radiobiology research using vibrational spectroscopies. A short description of our experimental approaches and data analysis procedures is also reported., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This review addresses the purported interplay between actual or simulated weightlessness and cellular response to ionizing radiation. Although weightlessness is known to alter several cellular functions and to affect signaling pathways implicated in cell proliferation, differentiation and death, its influence on cellular radiosensitivity has so far proven elusive. Renewed controversy as to whether reduced gravity enhances long-term radiation risk is fueled by recently published data that claim either overall enhancement of genomic damage or no increase of radiation-induced clastogenicity by modeled microgravity in irradiated human cells. In elucidating this crucial aspect of space radiation protection, ground-based experiments, such as those based on rotating-wall bioreactors, will increasingly be used and represent a more reproducible alternative to in-flight experiments. These low-shear vessels also make three-dimensional cellular co-cultures possible and thus allow to study the gravisensitivity of radioresponse in a context that better mimics cell-to-cell communication and hence in vivo cellular behavior.

The possible use of radioactivity dispersal devices by terrorist groups has been recently reported in the news. In this paper, we discuss the threat of terrorist attacks by plutonium, with particular attention to the dispersal of plutonium by explosion or fire. Doses resulting from inhalation of radioactive aerosol induced by a plutonium explosion or fire are simulated using a Gaussian plume model (the HOTSPOT code) for different meteorological conditions. Ground contamination and resuspension of dust are also considered in the simulations. Our simulations suggest that acute effects from a plutonium dispersal attack are very unlikely. For late stochastic effects, the explosion poses a greater hazard than fire. However, even in the worst-case scenario, the dispersed plutonium would cause relatively few excess cancers (around 80 in a city of 2 million inhabitants) after many years from the explosion, and these excess cancers would remain undetected against the background of cancer fatalities.